Get on those cowboy boots — they are made for wearin’

Once a year the National Western Stock Show comes to town and it’s safe to wear your cowboy boots in Denver without getting teased. Traveling around the West, you find that in most other cities – from Taos to Tucson, from Boise to Billings – cowboy boots aren’t quaint and costume-y but just part of the local scene.

Denver denies its ranching roots – “we’re not a cowtown” – perhaps trying to distinguish its sophisticated self from that rustic rival to the north, Cheyenne, where they celebrate their western image with colorful boot sculptures taller than a cowboy on almost every street corner.

So, if you have ‘em, pull ‘em on this week – the Stock Show’s in town. And think about the interesting origins of the cowboy boot that began with the massive cattle drives and start of cattle ranching in the decades after the Civil War. Cowhands on horseback needed footwear to fit the situation, so boot makers modified the high-topped, low-heeled, square-toed boot worn by cavalry soldiers on horseback during the Civil War.

Soon, boot-making shops flourished in Texas and in the Kansas cattle trailhead cities of Dodge City, Wichita and Abilene. Boot makers also travelled around various ranching regions in the West. A good boot maker hand produced about 12 pairs per month. Depending on materials and quality, these sold for $3 to $25 a pair in the day when $2 was a darn-good workingman’s daily wage. A cowboy might stay for life with a boot maker who learned to fit his foot accurately. But by 1880, cattlemen and cowhands could order boots via mail order catalog.

The days of the massive cattle drives ended by 1890, but cattle ranching spread throughout the West and so did cowboy boots. The pointy toe ranch boots became the icon of the American working cowboy and, pretty soon, the Hollywood cowboy.

The distinctive look of this manly footwear came from functionality. The narrow toe and slick sole slipped easily into the stirrup, and more importantly let the rider get off in a hurry – on his own decision or if bucked off by a cantankerous horse. The underslung heel kept his foot from slipping through the stirrup, This prevented the thing a cowboy feared most – being thrown from his horse, “hung up” by his boot and dragged to death.

The tall boot tops protected from rattlesnakes and cactus and also reduced chafing from the stirrups. The stitching across the instep, called a “toe bug,” eased boot wrinkles, but quickly became decorative and even elaborate. Straps called “mule ears” helped pull the boot on. Cowboys, often a bit vain about their appearance, appreciated how the boot added an inch or two to their height.

Buffalo Bill and other flamboyant western showmen popularized the boot. Pretty soon dudes, saddle dandies and drugstore cowboys who had never even dreamed of doing ranch work strutted around in fancy footwear. Even everyday boots became fancier, but dress-up boots were made in bright colors and stitched with patterns of stars, moons, diamonds, steer heads, oil derricks, ranch brands, roses and cactus.

Demand spurred production, and boot manufacturing companies opened up for mass production – most of them in Texas. According to Ranch Dressing by M. Jean Greenlaw, there are 200 steps to making a boot and as many as 150 people handle the boot during the manufacturing process.

Justin Boot Company had its roots in Spanish Fort, Texas, where H. J. “Big Daddy Joe” Justin began a boot making operation in his home in 1879. The firm incorporated as Justin and Sons in 1908, by which time the company was selling boots in 26 states, Mexico, Canada and Cuba, for an average price of $11 a pair.

Another major mass boot manufacturer, Tony Llama, launched in El Paso, Texas, in 1912, and was absorbed into its competitor Justin Industries in 1990. Sam Lucchese opened his custom boot-making outfit in San Antonio in 1883, producing the “finest line of made-to-measure boots in Texas.” By 1918, the firm was crafting 35 pairs a day. Lucchese boots became the favorite of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the firm still produces one-of-a-kind bootwear today.

The debut of the Hollywood cowboy launched a trend for even fancier western outfits and cowboy boots, starting with dapper screen cowboy Tom Mix who first galloped onto the movie screen in 1910. Firms like the Diamond Posado Boot Company that opened in Hollywood in 1915 supplied flashy boots to early film stars.

Fashion demand for cowboy boots has peaked and plummeted. Beginning in the 1930s, dude ranches around the West created a western vacation on horseback. The Justin Company in 1934 introduced the first-ever line of women’s cowboy boots. In the 1950s and ‘60s, John Wayne westerns and TV shows like Bonanza and Gunsmoke revived popularity of cowboy boots, hats and shirts. Even Elizabeth Taylor pranced around in cowboy boots: a $40,000 pair sparkling with 8.09 carats of diamonds.

Cowboy boots fell from fashion by the mid 1960s – perhaps eclipsed by hippie sandals? So, cowboy boots went back to the ranch, worn mainly in rural regions by genuine cowhands, ranchers, sheriffs and Texas Rangers.

However, a new generation jumped into the saddle in 1980 when John Travolta swaggered onto the big screen in Urban Cowboy and kicked off another western wear fad. By 1985, 8 million pairs sold a year; by 1990, 12 million pairs.

The basic boot shape has stayed the same, but colors, decorative patterns and exotic materials spiced things up. Calf skin is the most typical material – durable yet easily shaped and imported from Italy and France as a side product of the European taste for veal. More exotic boot materials include ostrich, lizard, elk, alligator, eel, shark, armadillo, even elephant and, of course, rattlesnake. President Harry Truman swaggered around in a pair of kangaroo boots.

Today, the art of custom boot making continues, although there are only a few hundred custom boot makers left in the USA. One of them is Dave “Hutch” Hutchings, a third generation boot maker working in Thornton and Parker. Hutch says it takes around 40 hours to hand make a pair, and his boots start in the price range of $950. He also teaches boot making and judges boot makers’ handiwork at the annual Boot & Saddlemakers Trade Show in Wichita Falls, Texas. Hutch says that one of the fanciest pairs of boots he ever made was for the Buffalo Bill Museum above Golden for the 2003 exhibit on cowboy boots.

So, what are you waiting for? Put ‘em on and giddyap – why not be cowboy or cowgirl, if only for a week?